Benjamin Schall, chief operating officer for Rouse Properties, points out some of the new construction under way to add customer-friendly amenities to the company’s Chula Vista Center mall. Nelvin C. Cepeda • U-T

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Benjamin Schall, chief operating officer for Rouse Properties, points out some of the new construction under way to add customer-friendly amenities to the company’s Chula Vista Center mall. Nelvin C. Cepeda • U-T

In the same way that coffee shops transcended the idea of selling caffeinated beverages to become community hubs, malls want to transcend shopping and become the place where everyone — and not just teenagers — comes to meet, socialize or get some work done.

Five San Diego County malls recently unveiled multimillion-dollar renovations that introduced new, socially oriented seating arrangements, upgraded food courts and dining options and free Wi-Fi — all intended to make malls a destination place to spend non-shopping time.

Mall owners hope a rising tide of new amenities, along with a busy schedule of events, will lift all tenants.

“If we enrich their lives, they’re going to come back to us and shop with us,” said Steve Dumas, senior vice president of design for Westfield USA.

Malls have been under pressure along with the rest of the retail industry when sales plummeted during the recession and subsequent sluggish recovery. After hitting a sales peak of $416.20 per leased square foot in 2007, sales fell 12 percent to $365.39 in 2009, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers, an industry nonprofit. Compounding matters, the national vacancy rate for super regional malls — malls with 800,000 square feet or more, including Fashion Valley and Westfield UTC — jumped from 6.7 percent in 2006 to 10.6 percent in 2009.

Sales and vacancy rates improved in 2010 and 2011, just in time for malls to face a new challenge in the form of Internet retail. Online sales made up 7 percent of all sales last year and should hit 9 percent by 2016, says a report from Forrester Research.

Westfield leads

In response, local malls have undergone expensive renovations designed to create an engaging experience that will tempt customers more than the cold efficiency of buying off the Web.

“If all you want to do is buy something, it’s faster and cheaper on the Internet,” said Keith Pittsford, a Mission Valley architect at SGPA Architecture and Planning. “But you don’t get the social aspect. There’s a need for people to interact with other people.”

The national leader on this type of renovation may be Westfield, said Garrick Brown, research director for Terranomics Retail Services in San Francisco. Westfield upgraded malls in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and recently spent $180 million renovating Westfield UTC in University City and $55 million to redo Westfield North County in Escondido.

Both malls will soon feature free Wi-Fi throughout the property, and they’ve upgraded their seating, but the greatest changes may be in the food courts, which no longer resemble the kind of fast food cafeterias typically associated with malls.

At Westfield UTC, Rubio’s has been joined by Eureka craft beer and hamburgers, and Sarku Japan, a purveyor of sushi. Seating has changed, too, with traditional metal chairs and tables replaced by stools at high counters, and higher-quality chairs and tables. But most striking may be the long, sturdy tables studded with electric outlets that run along the wings of the food court.

Westfield general manager Ryan Perry hopes the nearby business and student communities will come and use the space during lower-traffic periods.

“We’ll have business people and students with laptops — like a library, in off-peak mode,” Perry said.

Focus on comfort

Malls are renewing their emphasis on dining and entertainment in general, in part because it’s hard to order “going out to eat” on the Internet. Westfield UTC has added fast-casual restaurants like Seasons 52 and Tender Greens, and the high-end ArcLight Cinema, which has a bar and cafe of its own.

The new Whole Foods coming to the Flower Hill Promenade in Del Mar will be the first in the county with the grocery chain’s new restaurant concept. The restaurant along with Pannikin’s will be key to energizing the whole property.

“Retail is a meeting place today,” said Geoffery Essakow, co-owner and developer of Flower Hill. “I want people to feel cool about coming to hang here.”

The new malls aren’t just going for cool — they also want comfort.

The Chula Vista Center and Fashion Valley Mall both feature what Fashion Valley general manager Bob Doherty called “living room vignettes” — cushioned chairs and couches set apart from the flow of foot traffic by plants, and facing each other in more intimate arrangements than an old-school bench.

“A lot of the techniques we’re using are borrowed from the hospitality industry,” Pittsford, the architect for Fashion Valley, said.

Revamping plazas

All the malls share a new emphasis on their central plazas, adding flowing water elements, and in the case of the two Westfield malls large screens for advertising and event announcements. Hosting events at the center court will be key to bringing more people at night. Westfield plans a string of small concerts and fashion shows and Chula Vista Center wants to have family-oriented events, as does Fashion Valley.

“We want people to say, ‘Let’s meet at Center Court at the Chula Vista Center,’ ” said Benjamin Schall, chief operating officer at Rouse Properties, which owns the center.

The more reasons people have to walk through the property and look at store windows, the better, mall operators said.

“We’re building foot traffic and that will benefit retailers,” Schall said.

Renovations at most of the local malls were complete in time for the big shopping weekend that started on Thanksgiving. Mall owners hope people will come and be impressed enough to come back when they’re less frantic about checking off their shopping lists.

The renovation appears to be succeeding at Westfield UTC. The central plaza and food court dining area were full on a sunny afternoon last week. Scott Deitz, who moved to San Diego six weeks ago from Miami Beach with his wife and four children, sat working on his laptop while his daughter spent her first day at school in La Jolla.

“This is one of the most beautiful outdoor spaces I’ve seen,” he said. “I saw the couches and couldn’t resist.”